I recently surveyed a whole load of ladies on my socials about exactly what this post is all about,

The Best Diet To Lose Weight

That’s what it’s all about though right ?

You wanna know the best way,

The right way,

and ultimately the quickest way,

You wanna lose all the weight that you have put on over the last 5 years in 5 days,

I get it,

but with so many diets out there, so many plans and so many PT’s slagging off one another when it comes to the diets they promote, it’s a minefield on where to start,

and that’s without adding the long list of diet and plans you have already tried and usually failed,

I had a table that I was filling out for a course and it had on there “What has your clients already tried”, this was by far the longest column out of them all,

I just kept adding things,

Plus the survey helped massively because I also asked about that in there and the answers were some what obscure,

“The buddy diet”

I had to search that one and even Google turned round to me and asked “WTF are you chatting about”

but it just goes to show how many are out there,

Taking all of this out of the equation though you wanna know the BEST diet to lose the weight that you wanna lose, losing it in the quickest way and ultimately taking you from where you are now which is overweight, miserable and pissed off and fast tracking you to feeling sexy, confident and back into your size 10’s,

Well I’m gonna let you into a little secret,

The best diet for you may not be the best diet for someone else,

This is my favourite conversation to have with ladies,

It will start with “My friend tried this so I gave it a go because she lost a billion lb doing it”

and then naturally she will turn into a rep and offer you a ridiculous discount code (commission code) with some sleazy sales thing like “It worked for me so you’ll smash it hun”

Shudder,

Anyway, I’m getting of course,

So I wanna make it super easy for you,

I’m gonna give you a run down of the most popular diets and I will, try, not to put my opinion in as, as I said, it depends on you,

It comes down to your circumstances, your lifestyle, your job, your family life and a fuck ton of other shit,

Hence why you have tried some and they haven’t worked for you, they just strayed away too far from your normal life,

(We will take out the fact you only gave it 48 hours before deciding it didn’t work for you)

Eating 5 Chinese’s a week and wanting to cut them all out in a matter of days is next level silly but let’s go,

Balls deep into the diets that are the most popular and you can decide which may work and then I will tell you which has worked wonders for my Academy ladies,

Sounds fair ?

Sick - let’s go.

KETO / LOW CARB

In the UK we have a program called TOWIE and it’s a reality show where they follow Essex guys and girls going about their lives and jobs - you know the usual reality goodness,

There was this saying when the show first came out “No carbs before Marbs”

Granted that saying is a little old school now but we will always see carbs as the devil,

I mean, the best things have carbs in,

Pizza, Pasta, Bread, Chips Sweets - I mean I need to make sure I have eaten before I go shopping otherwise that Tiger bread is going straight in my basket,

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with tiger bread but when you consume the entire loaf in 17 minutes then it’s probably best to avoid,

Anyway,

Because carbs are nice we assume they are the reason we are fat,

So we cut them out,

That’s it - no more carbs, we are never gonna eat them ever again - they are the reason I’m 3 stone overweight,

The issue we have though is carbs are in EVERYTHING,

Seriously, so you wanna cut them out and you do this house sweep, the kids are wondering what the fuck you are doing, you run around with a bin bag and put everything in and tell them how you are going on a carb detox,

They give you an eye roll and tell themself not to worry, the crisps will be back by the weekend.

The only small issue with carbs is they do not fill us up as much - ye granted they will for 10 minutes but not only do they not fill us up they can be high in calories,

I mean ask yourself when have you ever just had 3 slices of dominoes ?

We don’t, we have the whole pizza along with garlic bread and cookies….

Cons of Keto

Weight Loss Clubs

Ah, slimming world, my favourite subject to talk about but as I promised you at the top I will remain impartial,

So thousands upon thousands of ladies and men have seen good results on Slimming World and not just losing a couple of lb we are talking dropping a shit ton of weight,

So with the weekly weigh ins it gives you the one thing so many of you are missing when it comes to losing weight,

and that’s accountability,

Someone is gonna watch you stand on the scales every Wednesday evening and either say “Well done you have lost 3lbs” or “Oh dear what happened this week”

Either way they are patronising as fuck but - stop Alex, you said you would be impartial,

OK, Slimming world is great if you have a lot of weight to lose,

and I mean a LOT,

It gives you something to focus on, some accountability and you are no longer nailing 16 takeaways a week because let’s face it you don’t wanna be the one that puts on that week,

but the down side ?

They don’t talk about or educate you on the one thing needed for fat loss - CALORIE DEFICIT,

(Not bad, I got quite a way through this without mentioning calories - virtual high five to myself)

That’s what is gonna lose the fat - which is what you wanna do right ?

CD and Accountability and you are gonna be well on your way,

Hence why SW has such a high turnover of stopping and starting againers,

If you ask the average SW attendee how many times they have gone back the answer will not surprise you, I can guarantee it’s at least 3-4 times.

Plus they only use weight as a measure of progress - not good, us as females, our weight will go up and down all the fucking time,

So just using that one thing is silly, you could stay the same weight but lose fat, which can be measured through taking your inches each week, inches could go down and weight could stay the same or even go up,

When weight goes up it leads us to do one thing……

Saying ‘fuck it’

Scary stuff.

Pros of WL Clubs

Great for the accountability

Recipe ideas

Community of other SW attendees,

Cons of WL Clubs

Zero education hence the need for going back again and again

Only use Weight to show progress,

Relationship with food damaged by using words like ‘Syn’

Exercise and Gyms

Do you like exercise ?

Serious question because it is super beneficial for things outside of weight loss,

Fitness

Strength

Mental well being

Body shape changing

“Toning”

But many will do it because they think they have to for fat loss,

Joining the gym again every January - hitting it really hard for 2 weeks, start to flounder before packing it in 3 weeks later,

Knowing what to do, doing a bit here and there, clock watching waiting for the 45 mins to click by as that seems to be the acceptable time to spend in there.

Exercise is used as a tool to AID fat loss,

That’s it, granted we just spoke about the pros above but I am aiming at this for fat loss purposes,

Remember, if you are still with me we are looking for the best diet to lose weight,

So let’s put it this way -

You have 2000 calories to spend each day to STAY THE SAME, as in not lose fat but not gain it either,

But you don’t wanna stay the same you wanna lose fat,

So we need to consume LESS the 2000,

You can do this in two ways,

Burn 300 calories doing exercise OR eat 300 calories less,

It still leads you to 1700 in total but how you get there is your shout,

So if exercise if not your bag, not got the time, no gym membership blah blah blah then look at the food side of things,

But don’t kill yourself at the gym that you hate going to, doing things you hate doing knowing full way you are gonna consume a 1000 calories Chinese when you get back to reward yourself for going,

Pros of Exercise

Strength,

“Toning”

Fitness

Social side

Endorphins flowing / Feel good factor

Cons of Exercise

Rewarding yourself after so cancelling out what you just did,

You feel anxious and intimidated,

The guilt when you don't go,

Low Calorie diets

Now if you are smart you would have given calories a go,

Calorie counting or just being more conscious with what it is you are eating and consuming with the calorie content,

But when we understand that this is the science of fat loss, rather then eating the 1700 we are recommended we go balls deep down to 1000/1200,

Why ?

Because we want results yesterday,

Especially if you use MFP to count your calories - when you sign up it asks for your current weight and then how much weight you would like to lose a week,

Well you, naturally put 4lbs a week would be amazing,

and then it gives you 1250 calories to use,

FAR. TOO. LOW.

It’s very difficult to stick to which leads us to up our calories as the days go on because we are more hungry,

Granted to lower your calories are the quicker you will lose fat,

BUT this isn’t great for a number of reasons,

1 - It’s super difficult to stick to which makes us grumpy, irritable and hangry,

2 - We don’t have the energy to perform daily tasks which means we skip exercise, the gym or even our steps each day,

3 - We will tend to massively over consume calories when we stop because we have restricted ourself so much, which in turn will make us put on fat.

Pros of Low Calorie

Fast results even though it’s short lived.

Cons of Low Calorie

Low mood,

Hangry

Lack of energy

Results are nearly ALWAYS short term,

Restriction.

Shakes and Pills

In other word “supplements”,

What we need to understand about supplements is they are literally supplementing where food should be,

Its why protein shakes aren’t just for body builders,

Juicing isn’t just for celebs that don’t eat,

Smoothies aren’t just for the yoga mums on the playground,

Now lets get it straight, nothing compares to real food,

If you don’t get enough protein in your diet you can supplement that with a protein shake (no you will not turn into a bodybuilder)

If you don’t eat enough fish then you may want to supplement your diet with fish oil tablets,

pretty straight forward right ?

So shakes 100% have their place,

They are great for convenience,

They are quick,

They can be pre made,

They can be consumed anywhere,

and when made right with a conscious look at calories and a source of protein to keep us full then they are next level good for busy people,

But as I said nothing compares to regular food,

It’s a psychological thing - you are drinking instead of eating ?

How many times have you had a bottle of wine and been starving ?!

Many times i recon,

you have consumed 750 calories but will consume more calories on top of that,

This is the same,

Yes your smoothie still has calories, just because we drunk it does not make it calorie free,

Read that again 😉

and when it comes to pills, supplements like vitamins etc is what you need to be looking at - fat burners, not matter what moron is selling them is a massive no no,

As much as we can bang on about calories deficit - that is how you burn fat NOT a pill from amazon or an IG reality star.

Pros os Shake and Pills

Shakes are convenient,

Can be consumed anywhere,

Are quick and can be prepared,

Cons of Shakes and Pills

Nothing compares to real food,

The smell is next level if you don’t wash the bottle near enough straight away,

So there is quite an extensive list of all the plans, well not all, that would be insane, as I said before, new diets and plans pop up all the time,

What you need to do is find a diet / plan that you are gonna enjoy, gives you freedom and is ultimately sustainable,

But for you that might be Keto,

For another that might be working out 6 times a week,

and for someone else it might be calorie counting,

Pick one and the best bit of advice I can give you is be consistent,

Don’t pick one, give it day - that, unfortunately is not consistency but you know that,

If you would like to see what our ladies do in the Academy to see their incredible weight and inch loss then check out our Free DTD Cheatsheet here.